Ownership of copyright in items being considered for digitisation is a key issue for any digitisation
project. Creating a digital copy of an item involves the act of reproduction and
its use online will involve the act of communication. Under the Australian
Copyright Act 1968, both these acts cannot be undertaken without the permission
of the copyright owner (unless copyright no longer subsists in the work).
Copyright legislation is complex and it is not necessarily safe to assume that
copyright does not subsist in an item just because it is, or appears to be,
old.

Under the Australian
Copyright Act, copyright in a photograph taken before 1 May 1969 expires 50
years after the end of the year in which the photograph was taken. Copyright in
a photograph taken after 1 May 1969 expires 50 years after the end of the year
in which the photograph was first published.

If a photograph taken after
1 May 1969 remains unpublished, it will effectively have perpetual copyright
protection. For a photograph to be 'published' reproductions have to have been
supplied (whether by sale or otherwise) to the public. (Gerdsen, 193)

It may to be difficult to ascertain the copyright status of all items held in an organisation's
collection. The organisation will need to ascertain either:

that they already have
permission to make digital copies of the items in question (e.g. through a
permission document provided when material was acquired), or

that the rights to do so can be secured from the owner/s, or

that copyright in the items cannot be traced and the organisation is prepared to risk the
possibility of some copyright breach.

If the last option is followed, it would be prudent for the organisation to provide a public statement
on its web site outlining what action will be taken if they receive a complaint
regarding a breach of copyright. Copyright is a right owned by an individual or
a company, so it is the subject of civil rather than criminal action. Generally
copyright owners are concerned to protect their economic interests. An
appropriate copyright statement could indicate that if a breach of copyright is
established, the organisation would be prepared to negotiate a usage fee with
the copyright owner and/or to remove the image from the collection. It would be
appropriate to seek legal advice regarding the proper wording of any such
statement.

Securing rights will
generally involve extensive research, negotiation, drawing up and entering a
licence agreement and possibly payment. This can be extremely time consuming
particularly in a complex and extensive collection of material. All clearances
obtained should be properly documented prior to commencement of digitisation. If
it is unclear who owns copyright in an item, it is prudent to undertake some
research and approach any owner located with a request for permission to
digitise. It should also be noted that rights to digitise copies of original
items such as photographs of original artworks, may reside with someone other
than the owner of copyright in the original item. This could be the photographer
or a publisher. If copyright clearance cannot be secured it may be necessary to
abandon the project.

It is also worth noting that moral rights have recently been introduced into the Australian Copyright Act
1968. This means that in addition to any economic rights, authors now have a
right of integrity and attribution. This means a work may not be subject to
derogatory treatment and that the author has a right to be identified as such if
the work is published. Note that in some cases derogatory treament could include
cropping and colourisation of images.

Using existing copies

Copies may already exist of material being considered for digitisation. If an item is not unique (e.g. a
published photograph or newspaper) it may have already been digitised or copied
by another body and may be available for purchase or by subscription. If good
quality physical copies are available, such as slides or microfilm, these may
already meet existing user needs. It may therefore be more appropriate to use
scarce digitisation funds for items where such copies are not
available.

Known demand v potential demand

It may be tempting to
digitise only prized items in a collection or sections of items which are
already in high demand. (Lee, 14) However this should be balanced against
digitising a wider range of material in order to encourage new users and uses of
the material. The number of people likely to use the material must be a central
factor in the decision to digitise. Given that digitising an item means that
many people in many locations can access it at the same time, likely level of
use is a very important criteria for justifying the cost of
digitising.

Format and physical condition

The format of items to be digitised and the size and physical condition of individual items will be one of
the prime determinants of the digitisation methodology chosen for the project.
In some cases the physical condition of the items may mean that they cannot be
exposed to the digitisation process without risking damage to the item itself.
In other cases the availability of a digital reproduction of the item/s may
reduce use and therefore assist with preservation of the original. Some formats
of material may require specialised and expensive equipment in order to create a
digital reproduction, such as special cradles or lighting for fragile books or
large format scanners for oversize items. Other material, such as plans or line
drawings, may require particular high-resolution formats in order to meet user
needs. It is also possible that some items in poor condition may pose a health
hazard to handlers, so any potential health risks need to be
identified.

The format of items chosen
for digitisation and the type of usage envisaged for these items will determine
which technical standards and methodologies will need to be applied to capture,
store and provide access to the items. Whereas digitisation standards for text
and photographic images for example are comparatively robust, more complex media
such as audio and video present more challenging problems for the project. This
means that the format and physical condition of items chosen can have a
significant impact on the complexity and thus the cost of the overall project.

Visual and information characteristics

The majority of digitisation
projects involve text or images and these present specific challenges when
selecting material for digitisation. Colour images pose issues of greater
technical complexity than black and white images and also produce much larger
file sizes. The level of detail in a photograph may determine the resolution
required for the digital image in order to meet the projected needs of the user.
If text is being captured, the use of OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
software will need to be considered. Items containing both text and images are
likely to require a different treatment than materials containing just one of
these.

The recent report on Victorian local history collections (see the Local History Digitisation Project
web site at http://www.libraries.vic.gov.au/downloads/Library_Network_Unit/Local_History_Digitisation_Project_Report.pdf
made it clear that various forms of text originals, such as rate books or
directories, are seen as high priorities for digitising. However, in many cases
what users really require could be access to structured electronic versions of
the text, rather than simply scanned images of the pages. Therefore rather than
scanning (and/or using OCR software) for some formats of material 'digitisation'
may involve database design and manual data entry. Such a solution would allow
users to undertake complex searches for information which had previously been
buried in books or piles of documents. In such cases scanned images of the
actual pages would not provide the same user functionality (although this may
have value in other applications).

Location and conservation requirements

The inclusion of items which
require specialised environments or handling for conservation reasons, will
increase the complexity of the project. If materials cannot be removed from
specific locations for security or conservation reasons, it will be necessary to
establish digitisation facilities on site. This could involve significant
additional cost. If items cannot be exposed to high levels of lighting for long
periods, this may reduce the ability to digitise to high quality using digital
cameras.

Cataloguing status

Items which have rich and
reliable catalogue information available for search purposes and for display
alongside the digital version, will prove more valuable in a networked
environment than materials with little or no ancillary information available. If
items proposed for digitisation have good information already stored in an
electronic database which can be linked to the digitised items, they are likely
to create a more valuable resource and be more flexible for different types of
users. If electronic catalogue information is not already available, it will be
necessary to incorporate the creation of such records into the project - if
people cannot find the material, there is little point in digitising it. The
creation of catalogue records can be an extremely expensive part of the project.

Administrative or institutional priorities

A number of administrative
issues will necessarily form part of the selection criteria matrix used to
determine appropriate material for digitisation. Some of these may
include:

Existing equipment/expertise

Institutional strategies or policies

Funding body requirements

Stakeholder priorities

Cultural sensitivities (particularly pertinent in relation to the consideration of material relating
to Australian indigenous communities)

Privacy rights of individuals represented or connected to specific items

Long-term digital data management costs (Vogt-O'Connor, 47)

Criteria check lists

It may be useful to establish a criteria check-list to assist staff with selecting material for
digitisation. This would cover all criteria established to determine whether or
not an item will be digitised for the project. Such a list could
include:

Meets subject matter/collection priorities identified for the project

Copyright cleared

No existing copies which meet user needs

High potential demand

Physical condition suitable for digitising

Meets the visual and information characteristic requirements established for the project

No problems with location

Rich existing catalogue data

Meets institutional priorities

Other project or institution specific criteria

Such a check list will
assist with prioritising material for digitisation and will ensure consistency
of approach throughout the project when different staff members are dealing with
a large number of items.

Physical preparation of items

Prior to digitisation all
the items to be digitised will need to be collected and checked to ensure that
they are available for use when required. The collection may need to be collated
and organised ready for digitisation. Items may also have to be packed and
transported to the digitisation location, and perhaps insured. Physical
preparation may include things like flattening, disbinding, cleaning, removal of
staples. It includes putting items into an order which facilitates efficient
capture. At the point of preparation, duplicates will be removed and, if only a
selection of items from a collection are to be digitised, that selection should
be made.

Certain items may require
the creation of an intermediate copy using a traditional analogue reproductive
process, prior to digitisation. Such items could include delicate or light
sensitive originals which may be damaged if exposed to digitisation equipment or
oversized items. In these cases it will be necessary to create an initial
photograph or transparency using traditional techniques. This surrogate copy can
then be digitised.